Re: VGA cards
On Tue, 15 Dec 2009 11:33:41 +0100, Johannes Wiedersich wrote:
> Camaleón wrote:
>> It seems we have not many real choices, then :-(
>
> One of the remaining options is to complain to the dealer and/or
> manufacturer for providing a product that does not fully work, since
> neither the specifications are available to develop a working (free)
> driver nor is a driver available that supports the card fully with a
> free OS like debian. IIRC, the manufacturers have no satisfactory means
> to provide security updates of their binary-only drivers or care for
> security updates or other updates of the kernel that might break things.
> In other words, those drivers are deficient.
Yes, but any "decent" (aka, a recent model with some basic 3D
capabilities) vag card nowadays requires the use of some "buggy" driver
(ati or nvidia).
I was using (some years ago) Matrox cards but today's models cannot
compete with nvidia nor ati chipsets.
Well, do I *really* need a 3D driver?
Not really.
Me not, but the programs I am running, yes, they require it (do not know
for sure why) and if not 3D flag is found, they simple refuse to start.
Google Earth is one example.
The fact is that the same program (GE) just runs fine with an old ATI
rage card (16 MB) -with no 3D capabilities at all- under windows xp but
it royally fails when I try to run it from nvidia (Geforce 7600GS 128 MB)
under Linux because using "nv" driver which does have 3D flags.
Oh, well...
I really do not need the 3D options. Are "programs" which require me to
use that fancy 3D.
> IANAL and I don't know all the details, but at least in some countries
> dealers are required to include the full (printed) instructions
> necessary to operate any sold device. Blatantly that is not the case for
> most graphics cards.
Well, we all know there are companies that do not fully provide any data
about their specs or proceedings (we all know MS, right?) and the same
happens with the vast majority of hardware companies.
> Independent of your legal status, it is worthwhile to increase the
> 'incentive' of manufacturers to contribute to open source drivers by
> complaining loudly, also directly to them.
Yes, but people may need some functions that are not provided by Intel
cards. And remember that Intel driver also had its own glitches...
So I said we (linux users) have not many chances :-(
> FWIW, I gave up on using the ati drivers for my card, because I could
> not be bothered with all the bugs and with having to reinstall and
> configure it on every new kernel version.
>
> So ATI are another brand, I'd recommend to avoid. From what I read, the
> overall hassle is generally far less on using Intel cards. YMMV, of
> course and not all models of any manufacturer behave the same...
Both, ATI and Nvidia are quite the same: they do not provide a complete
access to their hardware specifications and just provide closed source
drivers.
And Intel VGA chipsets, well, for standard use I guess they should be
enough.
Greetings,
--
Camaleón
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